Hay Festival audio Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry on Blasphemy 1'21

What is the Hay Festival you ask

Freedom's just another word for dodging tough questions

Did stolen $$$ elect Bush in Ohio?

Fischer comeback

Bobby Fischer is considering returning to the arena of competitive chess. Yesterday he met with his former adversary Boris Spassky, who travelled to Iceland with the expressed purpose of "drawing Fischer back to the chessboard". Fischer is agreeable to the notion, but insists on a worthy opponent and Fischer Random rules.

This made me smile This Perfectly Good Apartment

100,000 Signatures Needed on Downing Street Letter go here to sign

Separation of god & science

Yes. They must be banned and education must be separated from religion and the church. Universal laws and standards are the basis of a civil society that respects human rights and the equality of all the citizens. Separation of religion from the state and education is the basis of a secular society, where free thinking is respected and encouraged. Religion, in my opinion, is permeated with superstition and contradicts the scientific achievements of humanity. For all these reasons religious schools must be banned.

Brain Region Linked to Metaphor Comprehension

Devolution Why intelligent design isn't.

Advocates of intelligent design point to two developments that in their view undermine Darwinism. The first is the molecular revolution in biology. Beginning in the nineteen-fifties, molecular biologists revealed a staggering and unsuspected degree of complexity within the cells that make up all life. This complexity, I.D.’s defenders argue, lies beyond the abilities of Darwinism to explain. Second, they claim that new mathematical findings cast doubt on the power of natural selection. Selection may play a role in evolution, but it cannot accomplish what biologists suppose it can.

'Atheist' back in pulpit thanks to David for the link

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At the top of each section there is a link to the entire show all 41 minutes of it. Here is a short clip I found amusing. Not our best or our brightest. And thanks to the numerous readers who sent me the link

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Original Source Star Tribune

Editorial: Memorial Day/Praise bravery, seek forgiveness
Published May 30, 2005

Nothing young Americans can do in life is more honorable than offering themselves for the defense of their nation. It requires great selflessness and sacrifice, and quite possibly the forfeiture of life itself. On Memorial Day 2005, we gather to remember all those who gave us that ultimate gift. Because they are so fresh in our minds, those who have died in Iraq make a special claim on our thoughts and our prayers.

In exchange for our uniformed young people's willingness to offer the gift of their lives, civilian Americans owe them something important: It is our duty to ensure that they never are called to make that sacrifice unless it is truly necessary for the security of the country. In the case of Iraq, the American public has failed them; we did not prevent the Bush administration from spending their blood in an unnecessary war based on contrived concerns about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. President Bush and those around him lied, and the rest of us let them. Harsh? Yes. True? Also yes. Perhaps it happened because Americans, understandably, don't expect untruths from those in power. But that works better as an explanation than as an excuse.

The "smoking gun," as some call it, surfaced on May 1 in the London Times. It is a highly classified document containing the minutes of a July 23, 2002, meeting at 10 Downing Street in which Sir Richard Dearlove, head of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, reported to Prime Minister Tony Blair on talks he'd just held in Washington. His mission was to determine the Bush administration's intentions toward Iraq.

At a time when the White House was saying it had "no plans" for an invasion, the British document says Dearlove reported that there had been "a perceptible shift in attitude" in Washington. "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The (National Security Council) had no patience with the U.N. route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action."

It turns out that former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke and former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill were right. Both have been pilloried for writing that by summer 2002 Bush had already decided to invade.

Walter Pincus, writing in the Washington Post on May 22, provides further evidence that the administration did, indeed, fix the intelligence on Iraq to fit a policy it had already embraced: invasion and regime change. Just four days before Bush's State of the Union address in January 2003, Pincus writes, the National Security Council staff "put out a call for new intelligence to bolster claims" about Saddam Hussein's WMD programs. The call went out because the NSC staff believed the case was weak. Moreover, Pincus says, "as the war approached, many U.S. intelligence analysts were internally questioning almost every major piece of prewar intelligence about Hussein's alleged weapons programs." But no one at high ranks in the administration would listen to them.

On the day before Bush's speech, the CIA's Berlin station chief warned that the source for some of what Bush would say was untrustworthy. Bush said it anyway. He based part of his most important annual speech to the American people on a single, dubious, unnamed source. The source was later found to have fabricated his information.

Also comes word, from the May 19 New York Times, that senior U.S. military leaders are not encouraged about prospects in Iraq. Yes, they think the United States can prevail, but as one said, it may take "many years."

As this bloody month of car bombs and American deaths -- the most since January -- comes to a close, as we gather in groups small and large to honor our war dead, let us all sing of their bravery and sacrifice. But let us also ask their forgiveness for sending them to a war that should never have happened. In the 1960s it was Vietnam. Today it is Iraq. Let us resolve to never, ever make this mistake again. Our young people are simply too precious.

© Copyright 2005 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

This article contains copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of democracy, economic, environmental, human rights, political, scientific, and social justice issues, among others. I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this article is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes.

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Check out this post at Brian Fleming's Weblog It looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger's stint as governor should be terminated. What an ass clown.

As anyone who has worked on a commercial shoot knows, every single prop and piece of scenery that is seen in a commercial gets placed there carefully and purposefully. The chance that a certain product or logo could make it into the frame without getting there by explicit design is precisely zero.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's new commercial is filled with conspicuously placed products. And these products just so happen to be sold by major contributors to his campaign.

Watch the ad Quicktime or Windows Media

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History Lessons: Another Way to Think About Secular Humanism

When people argue about secular humanism and religion in American history they usually end up throwing quotations at each other. Jefferson called for a "wall of separation" between church and state, but Washington said he never made a decision without consulting his God, and so forth. I'll get to what George was saying some other time, but for now I thought I'd approach the topic from a different angle.

Take a look at these numbers. In the year 1700, in the thirteen colonies, there was one church for every 598 colonists. Forty years later there was one church for every 642 colonists. And by 1780, in the middle of the War for Independence, there was one church for every 807 Americans. To put the matter simply, over the course of the eighteenth century the number of churches was declining in proportion to the number of Americans. 1780 was the lowpoint...

And its an interesting pattern. It suggests that over the course of the eighteenth century Americans were becoming more and more.... secular. From this perspective, the secular humanism of the American Revolution was not some fluky philosophical outburst sandwiched in between the "first" and "second" Great Awakenings...

And it won't do to shoehorn a lot of theology into the philosophy of the Revolution, either. Historians have wasted entire careers trying to demonstrate the influence of religion on the American Revolution--and they always fail. What stands out is the rise of secularism in eighteenth century America, culminating in the Revolution. It might be that the Revolution itself could not have happened had the secularization of the colonists not taken place first.

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"I can tell you that twelve years ago the famous Air Force Academy parachute team the Wings of Blue was sanctioned by some idiot prince at the academy to parachute out of the azure blue Colorado skies carrying quote the keys of heaven on the same day that James Dobson opened up his campus for Focus on the Family across the highway. They landed down on the lawn and they walked over and handed him the keys of heaven. Hello, does anyone see a problem here Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison hello."—Michael Weinstein, Air Force Academy Graduate

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"If you've retired, you don't have anything to worry about -- third time I've said that. (Laughter.) I'll probably say it three more times. See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. (Applause.)"

Tell them it's propaganda, promise to tell them three more times, and they applaud.

Posted by Norm at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)

Class Act

I forgot pay my Con-Ed bill
so my radio didn't work too well...
~ dylan ~ talking world war three blues

...

I suppose I could turn this into a Public Service Announcement. Kids, don't let this happen to you! "Forgetting" to pay your phone bill on time is a serious crime. Just because some of your "blogger" pals do it, doesn't mean you have to follow suit. Is it really worth jeopardizing your future to post that "one more thing" instead of going to tour assigned telecom webpage and dropping a big wad of cash on your long-suffering multinational creditor? No. You don't need this sort of black mark on your Permanent Record. You don't need to ruin your life by spacing out your rightful Obligations As A Citizen. So remember: always fork over "the bread" you owe -- or face the consequences! (This message is brought to you as a public service by the Advertising Council of America.)

Bush makes Brittany Cry and the world shares her pain.

We all have our dreams and sometimes dreams come true. Keep hope alive. Isn't that right Carly.

The Good In Barbed Wire

This is a review of a postmodernist book in the style of Foucault about barbed wire. The reviewer is a cattle rancher from Bolivia, someone who uses barbed wire on a daily basis. He does a good job of demolishing the postmodern pretentious bullshit. The review is well worth the read.

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Just give me that old-time atheism!

Did Texas Ban Hetrosexual Marriage?

It's All Newsweek's Fault! Flash from Mark Fiore

Smoke and Mirrors: Democracy is a Three-Card Monte

Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!

Ninth Edition of the Skeptics Circle

The final three links will probably only be of interest to chess players.

Best Chessplayer Jeff Sonas has penned an interesting series of articles trying to measure the best over time.

Michael Adams to play Hydra the World Computer Chess Champion.

San Francisco Giants baseball players also play chess

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One hell of a Sandstorm want a few more here

Mad Kane is not happy about the compromise and has written a dandy little song parody on the subject to the tune of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again"

Judge Wars III: The New Hope a limerick from the savant.

Eight U.S. Soldiers Killed Over Two Days in Iraq

Eight American soldiers were killed in attacks by insurgents over the past the two days, the military said today, as a renewed wave of violence continued.

Where are the right-wing nuts who when they saw the figures of American Dead in March was 40 identified that as a downward trend based on a single month now. There is a trend of course April 52, May 60 so far.

Bill Maher has a new friend who doesn't want him arrested for treason, but does want him off the air.

From the comments Bill Responds

Posted by Norm at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

The video has been updated with footage that shows Scotty before Karzi and Scotty after Karzi, and an update to the title suggested by the name one commentor used.

A few words for George and Condi and Scott, all of whom lied when they claimed the Newsweek Story was repsonible for the 16 who died. Assholes that they are, making the claim in spite of General Myers statement that he didn't think it was all tied to the article. I think all three of you ought to listen to this and then get on the TV and apologize to the American People for your mendacity.

Posted by Norm at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

Link to Original

Creationism: God's gift to the ignorant
As the Religious Right tries to ban the teaching of evolution in Kansas, Richard Dawkins speaks up for scientific logic

Science feeds on mystery. As my colleague Matt Ridley has put it: “Most scientists are bored by what they have already discovered. It is ignorance that drives them on.” Science mines ignorance. Mystery — that which we don’t yet know; that which we don’t yet understand — is the mother lode that scientists seek out. Mystics exult in mystery and want it to stay mysterious. Scientists exult in mystery for a very different reason: it gives them something to do.

Admissions of ignorance and mystification are vital to good science. It is therefore galling, to say the least, when enemies of science turn those constructive admissions around and abuse them for political advantage. Worse, it threatens the enterprise of science itself. This is exactly the effect that creationism or “intelligent design theory” (ID) is having, especially because its propagandists are slick, superficially plausible and, above all, well financed. ID, by the way, is not a new form of creationism. It simply is creationism disguised, for political reasons, under a new name.

It isn’t even safe for a scientist to express temporary doubt as a rhetorical device before going on to dispel it.

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” You will find this sentence of Charles Darwin quoted again and again by creationists. They never quote what follows. Darwin immediately went on to confound his initial incredulity. Others have built on his foundation, and the eye is today a showpiece of the gradual, cumulative evolution of an almost perfect illusion of design. The relevant chapter of my Climbing Mount Improbable is called “The fortyfold Path to Enlightenment” in honour of the fact that, far from being difficult to evolve, the eye has evolved at least 40 times independently around the animal kingdom.

The distinguished Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin is widely quoted as saying that organisms “appear to have been carefully and artfully designed”. Again, this was a rhetorical preliminary to explaining how the powerful illusion of design actually comes about by natural selection. The isolated quotation strips out the implied emphasis on “appear to”, leaving exactly what a simple-mindedly pious audience — in Kansas, for instance — wants to hear.

The deceitful misquoting of scientists to suit an anti-scientific agenda ranks among the many unchristian habits of fundamentalist authors. But such Telling Lies for God (the book title of the splendidly pugnacious Australian geologist Ian Plimer) is not the most serious problem. There is a more important point to be made, and it goes right to the philosophical heart of creationism.

The standard methodology of creationists is to find some phenomenon in nature which Darwinism cannot readily explain. Darwin said: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” Creationists mine ignorance and uncertainty in order to abuse his challenge. “Bet you can’t tell me how the elbow joint of the lesser spotted weasel frog evolved by slow gradual degrees?” If the scientist fails to give an immediate and comprehensive answer, a default conclusion is drawn: “Right, then, the alternative theory; ‘intelligent design’ wins by default.”

Notice the biased logic: if theory A fails in some particular, theory B must be right! Notice, too, how the creationist ploy undermines the scientist’s rejoicing in uncertainty. Today’s scientist in America dare not say: “Hm, interesting point. I wonder how the weasel frog’s ancestors did evolve their elbow joint. I’ll have to go to the university library and take a look.” No, the moment a scientist said something like that the default conclusion would become a headline in a creationist pamphlet: “Weasel frog could only have been designed by God.”

I once introduced a chapter on the so-called Cambrian Explosion with the words: “It is as though the fossils were planted there without any evolutionary history.” Again, this was a rhetorical overture, intended to whet the reader’s appetite for the explanation. Inevitably, my remark was gleefully quoted out of context. Creationists adore “gaps” in the fossil record.

Many evolutionary transitions are elegantly documented by more or less continuous series of changing intermediate fossils. Some are not, and these are the famous “gaps”. Michael Shermer has wittily pointed out that if a new fossil discovery neatly bisects a “gap”, the creationist will declare that there are now two gaps! Note yet again the use of a default. If there are no fossils to document a postulated evolutionary transition, the assumption is that there was no evolutionary transition: God must have intervened.

The creationists’ fondness for “gaps” in the fossil record is a metaphor for their love of gaps in knowledge generally. Gaps, by default, are filled by God. You don’t know how the nerve impulse works? Good! You don’t understand how memories are laid down in the brain? Excellent! Is photosynthesis a bafflingly complex process? Wonderful! Please don’t go to work on the problem, just give up, and appeal to God. Dear scientist, don’t work on your mysteries. Bring us your mysteries for we can use them. Don’t squander precious ignorance by researching it away. Ignorance is God’s gift to Kansas.

Richard Dawkins, FRS, is the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science, at Oxford University. His latest book is The Ancestor’s Tale

This article contains copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of democracy, economic, environmental, human rights, political, scientific, and social justice issues, among others. I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this article is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes.

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Many of our readers and good friends are from the UK, Canada, Austrailia, New Zealand and other locales where tea is the drink of choice and that folks is the reason for the title of this post. We appreciate their support, their comments, and the fact that they haven't given up on us.

The wingnuttery is spreading $2500 grant helps to talk to the dead Let me be the first to apolgize to our friends in New Zealand. We tried to maintain the quarantine, really we did.

A spiritualist group has been given Auckland ratepayer money so it can teach people to communicate with the dead.

Bill Scher, of Liberal Oasis has a piece on Social Security and such in the Star Tribune

If you haven't visited our friend Chris Locke recently you're missing lots of great stuff.

From the Ant we have The Ten Hottest Books Of This Summer and Avery on Pharmacy Fencers (flash)

The Class of 9/11

Tillman's Parents on the Army

The military let him down. The administration let him down. It was a sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting."

Cara thinks we should all read this Neo Victorian America and I agree.

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I was talking to my TV last night. It is something I seldom do, but watching "60 Minutes" it was hard to stay quiet. When I heard, "you are designed to have sex with one person, your husband or wife."
I wanted to know what it was about my design that limited.

Then there was this exchange between Ed Bradley and Claude Allen (Bush's Domestic Policy Advisor) with one of poorest analogies I've heard in years.

Ed: What's wrong with telling kids look you should be abstinent, abstain from sex, but if you are going to be sexually active use a condom.
Claude: "If I were to say to that same group of teenagers, don't drink and drive but if you do drink and drive use your seat belt."

I heard myself say well yes that is good advice don't drink and drive, but what if I break the law and drive anyway doesn't it just make sense to fasten my seat-belt, what is it about drinking and driving that makes fastening my seat belt a bad idea.

And our sweet couple Amy and Rick both about to take the pledge to be virgins until married, but what's this Rick has had sex with someone else but not with Amy. He's what, a second chance virgin. What we get second chances, how cool is that. This whole abstinence thing is puzzling to me. I wonder what they do if they fail, are they required to take a twelve step program. Hi, I'm Rick and I'm a fornicator, a second chance fornicator. Hi Rick the group responds Hi, I'm Amy and I'm a fornicatrix. Hi Amy. Amy continues I know now that my higher power isn't a special spot located, she giggles...

Outraged, your damn right I'm outraged, their spending my tax dollars to pass out bibles, and Rick and Amy think a 12% success rate is good, but a 86% success rate for condoms, and that low success rate a result of lack of education in its use, is bad. You're turn.

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The Face of the New Democrats

Let conservatives co-opt "South Park and "The Incredibles." It's time for liberals to get in touch with the free-range, foul-mouthed, gunslinging antiheroes of "Deadwood"

essays and effluvia on Deadwood's salty language.

Priscilla hears verdict Poor

Houston Bar Association Judicial Evaluation Poll: overall ratings

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Wingnuts in a Star Wars Line A fun read. Bill Maher would have enjoyed it Yellow Ribbons and all.

Free Star Wars Tickets

Oh yes and while on the topic of Star Wars there is this unusual trailer via BMW

Darth Vader and G.W. Bush: a common vision of empire? thanks Carley

Patrick at the Kill The Buddha doesn't care much for academic regalia. I'm with him I've had it with funny suits. In fact I've had with the empty suits populating the planet. What do you think?

hmmm Buddha, that reminds me whatever happend to Sheldon? Link

Darth Vader and G.W. Bush: a common vision of empire? thanks Carley

The Root of All Evil Flash Video thanks to Etienne for the link

Posted by Norm at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

George W. Bush once again demonstrates that he doesn't have a clue. It's not the picture George it is the evidence it provides. Evidence of violations of international law, evidence of disrespect for the privacy of individuals when they are being held in your prison, yes even sleaze like Saddam. Get it George, violating international law demonstrates an ideology that is barbaric and backward, a neoconservative ideology.

Quicktime Video '35 757K

Quicktime Required (free download)

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There are many ways to relieve stress in a war zone. You have to love the way the Brits have done it in this amusing spoof of this WMP

Quicktime Video 3'36 9.7MB

Quicktime Required (free download)

Posted by Norm at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (28)

Keith Olbermann is one of the few faces on Cable News who exhibit intelligence, wit, and a decidely progressive tone. If you have watched Keith for any length of time you know that he enjoys needling the pundits at Fox News. Bill O'Reilly is a favorite target for his barbs. But Keith is equal opportunity when pontificating on the subject of Fox News. Nary a day goes by without the fairly unbalanced crowd taking a hit from Keith. A couple of nights ago was memorable when Keith referred to Fox News as the 1984 Network a tagline they should embrace not only in their reporting but on their logo. I mentioned the idea in comments to another post and Agitprop obliged. Speaking of Fox News, do you remember the audio from the Harry Shearer radio show where Sean Hannity coached his guests on how to answer questions from the "Liberal" Alan Colmes. The video of that off air but not off camera segment is now making its way through the "internets". You'll find it at the The Huffington Post

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Wrestling at church seen as good vs. evil

WINNIPEG - Christianity and wrestling are both about picking your hero and booing the enemy, so promoter Louis Hendrickson sees no problem with holding a match in a church basement.

That's just what happened Sunday when members of the congregation at St. Philip's Anglican Church in Winnipeg watched grapplers in the basement following a traditional church service upstairs.

I just couldn't help but notice the irony, after a sermon about a make believe God they went downstairs to watch some make believe wrasslin.

Quicktime Video '27 901K

Quicktime Required (free download)

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RFK a Question of Justice a must see program this coming Sunday.

Despite a few right-wing anecdotes that hard work is the determining factor in whether you are a winner or loser economically, we now find that not only is it not true for most Americans, but that "Despite the widespread belief that the US remains a more mobile society than Europe, economists and sociologists say that in recent decades the typical child starting out in poverty in continental Europe or in Canada has had a better chance at prosperity."

Read an excellent post on the topic at the American Street

Franken on the 8.8 Billion, Coleman, and how the press is apparently out of the loop.

Sith Happens

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Quicktime Video 7'01 9.2MB

Quicktime Required (free download)

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The final Star Wars epidsode, "Revenge of the Sith" has arrived. In honor of that event here is a post of mine from the archives, StarBush

The Scourge of Nationalism by Howard Zinn

Is not nationalism--that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder--one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? These ways of thinking--cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on--have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.

Mad Kane has written a couple Limericks on two of Dub's judicial nominees. Great stuff as usual.

Math Goes Postmodern

In popular conception, mathematics is the ultimate resolvable discipline, immune to the epistemological murkiness that so bedevils other fields of knowledge in this relativistic age. Yet Philip Davis, emeritus professor of mathematics at Brown University, has pointed out recently that mathematics also is "a multi-semiotic enterprise" prone to ambiguity and definitional drift.

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Quicktime Video 4'56 3.3MB

Hardball - Chris Matthews interviews Senator Norm Coleman and then has George Galloway respond, and once again Galloway hands him his ass.

Quicktime Video 6'50 5.7MB

Quicktime Required (free download)

Listen to Galloway and Learn Something Great link from the comments thanks Kali

George Galloway Defends Himself

George Galloway today accused US senators of manufacturing "the mother of all smokescreens" as he defended himself from charges that he profited from Iraqi oil sales. The anti-war Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, in east London, told the Senate subcommittee it had made a "schoolboy howler" in its investigation of illegal Iraqi oil sales. He said it was attempting to divert attention from the aftermath of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

"I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice," he told Senator Norm Coleman, the Republican subcommittee chairman.

"I am here today - but last week you already found me guilty. You traduced my name around the world without ever having asked me a single question, without ever having contacted me, without ever having written to me or telephoned me, without any contact with me whatsoever - and you call that justice."

Continue reading for the transcript

"Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader. and neither has anyone on my behalf. I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one - and neither has anyone on my behalf.

"Now I know that standards have slipped in the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice. I am here today but last week you already found me guilty. You traduced my name around the world without ever having asked me a single question, without ever having contacted me, without ever written to me or telephoned me, without any attempt to contact me whatsoever. And you call that justice.

I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction.

I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda.

I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001.

I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.

"Now I want to deal with the pages that relate to me in this dossier and I want to point out areas where there are - let's be charitable and say errors. Then I want to put this in the context where I believe it ought to be. On the very first page of your document about me you assert that I have had 'many meetings' with Saddam Hussein. This is false.

"I have had two meetings with Saddam Hussein, once in 1994 and once in August of 2002. By no stretch of the English language can that be described as "many meetings" with Saddam Hussein.

"As a matter of fact, I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns. I met him to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war, and on the second of the two occasions, I met him to try and persuade him to let Dr Hans Blix and the United Nations weapons inspectors back into the country - a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam Hussein than your own Secretary of State for Defense made of his.

"I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein when British and Americans governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas. I used to demonstrate outside the Iraqi embassy when British and American officials were going in and doing commerce.

"You will see from the official parliamentary record, Hansard, from the 15th March 1990 onwards, voluminous evidence that I have a rather better record of opposition to Saddam Hussein than you do and than any other member of the British or American governments do.

"Now you say in this document, you quote a source, you have the gall to quote a source, without ever having asked me whether the allegation from the source is true, that I am 'the owner of a company which has made substantial profits from trading in Iraqi oil'.

"Senator, I do not own any companies, beyond a small company whose entire purpose, whose sole purpose, is to receive the income from my journalistic earnings from my employer, Associated Newspapers, in London. I do not own a company that's been trading in Iraqi oil. And you have no business to carry a quotation, utterly unsubstantiated and false, implying otherwise.

"Now you have nothing on me, Senator, except my name on lists of names from Iraq, many of which have been drawn up after the installation of your puppet government in Baghdad. If you had any of the letters against me that you had against Zhirinovsky, and even Pasqua, they would have been up there in your slideshow for the members of your committee today.

"You have my name on lists provided to you by the Duelfer inquiry, provided to him by the convicted bank robber, and fraudster and conman Ahmed Chalabi who many people to their credit in your country now realize played a decisive role in leading your country into the disaster in Iraq.

"There were 270 names on that list originally. That's somehow been filleted down to the names you chose to deal with in this committee. Some of the names on that committee included the former secretary to his Holiness Pope John Paul II, the former head of the African National Congress Presidential office and many others who had one defining characteristic in common: they all stood against the policy of sanctions and war which you vociferously prosecuted and which has led us to this disaster.

"You quote Mr Dahar Yassein Ramadan. Well, you have something on me, I've never met Mr Dahar Yassein Ramadan. Your sub-committee apparently has. But I do know that he's your prisoner, I believe he's in Abu Ghraib prison. I believe he is facing war crimes charges, punishable by death. In these circumstances, knowing what the world knows about how you treat prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison, in Bagram Airbase, in Guantanamo Bay, including I may say, British citizens being held in those places.

"I'm not sure how much credibility anyone would put on anything you manage to get from a prisoner in those circumstances. But you quote 13 words from Dahar Yassein Ramadan whom I have never met. If he said what he said, then he is wrong.

"And if you had any evidence that I had ever engaged in any actual oil transaction, if you had any evidence that anybody ever gave me any money, it would be before the public and before this committee today because I agreed with your Mr Greenblatt [Mark Greenblatt, legal counsel on the committee].

"Your Mr Greenblatt was absolutely correct. What counts is not the names on the paper, what counts is where's the money. Senator? Who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars of money? The answer to that is nobody. And if you had anybody who ever paid me a penny, you would have produced them today.

"Now you refer at length to a company names in these documents as Aredio Petroleum. I say to you under oath here today: I have never heard of this company, I have never met anyone from this company. This company has never paid a penny to me and I'll tell you something else: I can assure you that Aredio Petroleum has never paid a single penny to the Mariam Appeal Campaign. Not a thin dime. I don't know who Aredio Petroleum are, but I daresay if you were to ask them they would confirm that they have never met me or ever paid me a penny.

"Whilst I'm on that subject, who is this senior former regime official that you spoke to yesterday? Don't you think I have a right to know? Don't you think the Committee and the public have a right to know who this senior former regime official you were quoting against me interviewed yesterday actually is?

"Now, one of the most serious of the mistakes you have made in this set of documents is, to be frank, such a schoolboy howler as to make a fool of the efforts that you have made. You assert on page 19, not once but twice, that the documents that you are referring to cover a different period in time from the documents covered by The Daily Telegraph which were a subject of a libel action won by me in the High Court in England late last year.

"You state that The Daily Telegraph article cited documents from 1992 and 1993 whilst you are dealing with documents dating from 2001. Senator, The Daily Telegraph's documents date identically to the documents that you were dealing with in your report here. None of The Daily Telegraph's documents dealt with a period of 1992, 1993. I had never set foot in Iraq until late in 1993 - never in my life. There could possibly be no documents relating to Oil-for-Food matters in 1992, 1993, for the Oil-for-Food scheme did not exist at that time.

"And yet you've allocated a full section of this document to claiming that your documents are from a different era to the Daily Telegraph documents when the opposite is true. Your documents and the Daily Telegraph documents deal with exactly the same period.

"But perhaps you were confusing the Daily Telegraph action with the Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor did indeed publish on its front pages a set of allegations against me very similar to the ones that your committee have made. They did indeed rely on documents which started in 1992, 1993. These documents were unmasked by the Christian Science Monitor themselves as forgeries.

"Now, the neo-con websites and newspapers in which you're such a hero, senator, were all absolutely cock-a-hoop at the publication of the Christian Science Monitor documents, they were all absolutely convinced of their authenticity. They were all absolutely convinced that these documents showed me receiving $10 million from the Saddam regime. And they were all lies.

"In the same week as the Daily Telegraph published their documents against me, the Christian Science Monitor published theirs which turned out to be forgeries and the British newspaper, Mail on Sunday, purchased a third set of documents which also upon forensic examination turned out to be forgeries. So there's nothing fanciful about this. Nothing at all fanciful about it.

"The existence of forged documents implicating me in commercial activities with the Iraqi regime is a proven fact. It's a proven fact that these forged documents existed and were being circulated amongst right-wing newspapers in Baghdad and around the world in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Iraqi regime.

"Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies.

"I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.

If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth.

"Have a look at the real Oil-for-Food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer.

"Have a look at the oil that you didn't even meter, that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went who knows where? Have a look at the $800 million you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country without even counting it or weighing it.

"Have a look at the real scandal breaking in the newspapers today, revealed in the earlier testimony in this committee. That the biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians. The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own Government."

Posted by Norm at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (94)

First on " Links With Your Coffee", a heartfelt thanks you to those who have made your Amazon purchases through the link on the sidebar providing me with a few dollars to help defray bandwidth costs. And a special thanks to the kind soul who purchased a digital camera through the link.

Evolution and "direct observation": Be careful what you wish for. Meet John Q Creationist A must read that will having you giggling all day long.

Hamlet's Cat Solioquy

To go outside, and there perchance to stay Or to remain within: that is the question: Whether 'tis better for a cat to suffer The cuffs and buffets of inclement weather...

A Homophone is not a Gay communication device, but is it true that Prince Harry is third in line for the "thrown" via Sandhill Trek

Muscular Christianity gets workout in Winnipeg Thanks to Victor for the link

Top Forty Radio

New Quicktime Video for "16 military wives" by the decemberists. Thanks to Ethan for the link.

onegoodmove reader Rufus J. Squirrel tells me he's started a blog He may be nuts here, but why don't you go say hi.

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True story, Word of Honor:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer
now dead,
and i were at a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter Island.
I said, "Joe, how does it make you feel
to know that our host only yesterday
may have made more money
than you novel 'Catch-22'
has earned in its entire history?"
And Joe said, "I've got something he can never have."
And I said, &What on earth could that be, Joe?"
And Joe said, "The knowledge that I've got enough."
Not bad! Rest in peace!&mdash Kurt Vonnegut

Posted by Norm at 3:42 AM | Permalink

Investigative journalism at its best a Karl Rove Secret Memo from MadKane

The Science of Gender and Science Pinker vs. Spelke

Moyers addresses 'liberal' label at the National Conference for Media Reform you can download the mp3 here 27.3MB

"An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda is less inclined to put up a fight - ask questions and be skeptical."—Bill Moyers

P. Z. Meyers on Niobrara (highly recommended)

What do you think of when someone mentions the word “Kansas”? Maybe what leaps to your mind is that it is a farming state that is flat as a pancake, or if you’ve been following current events, the recent kangaroo court/monkey trial, or perhaps it is the drab counterpart to marvelous Oz. It isn’t exactly first on the list of glamourous places. I admit that I tend to read different books than most people, so I have a somewhat skewed perspective on Kansas: the first thing I think of is a magic word.

Blame the Crusades
From swords to suicide bombers, the West's relationship with the Middle East hasn't changed much in the past millennium. That's why the film "Kingdom of Heaven" struck a chord. It's laden with silly inaccuracies to heighten the drama — unnecessary, considering how much more eye-popping the bare truth is — but it rams home the notion that events during the Crusades eerily parallel current world affairs.

What is History Carnival? Does it look interesting well then here is History Carnival # 8

Ms. Wrong Katrina vanden Heuvel responds to Ann Coulter

Virginity or Death! right-wing choices

Creationist's new design an excellent wrap up to the what the hell is wrong with Kansas story. Intelligent Design adds absolutely nothing to our knowledge. It is like all God arguments a space filler for a lack of any evidence, of any descriptive explanation. Hey, just say you don't have a clue, but you can't deal with the feeling there is something you don't know so you're going to substitute a God. Pick a name there are dozens, Allah, Zeus, Barney, Jehovah, or the latest flavor Designer in Chief.

Wal-Mart to Apologize For Ad in Newspaper The dip-shits compared zoning ordinances to book-burning in Nazi Germany

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Real Time with Bill Maher

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If, as our race approaches its maturity, it discovers, as I believe it will, that there is but one kind of knowledge and one method of acquiring it; then we, who are still children may justly feel it our highest duty to recognise the advisability of improving natural knowledge, and so to aid ourselves and our successors towards the noble goal which lies before mankind—Thomas Huxley, "On the Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge"

Posted by Norm at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Why Biblical Religions Are an Obstacle to Freedom
Shadia B. Drury

The following Op-Ed is from Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 25, Number 3.

When I speak about biblical religions, I mean the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths. It is fashionable in the West to speak about the "Judeo-Christian" tradition, as if Christian civilization has not been killing and persecuting Jews for two thousand years. The term Judeo-Christian gives the impression that Christianity and Judaism are somewhat allied and compatible. In contrast, Islam is regarded as the enemy-the incomprehensible and irrational other. But this is not the case; the difference between the "Judeo-Christian" civilization and the Muslim one is not as significant as we are inclined to believe. It is my contention that there are at least three aspects of biblical religion that present obstacles to freedom: (1) the depravity of human nature; (2) the singular conception of virtue; and (3) the collective conception of guilt.

First, biblical religions are suspicious of freedom, because they assume that human beings are severely flawed and, therefore, unlikely to use their freedom well. They assume that freedom can only lead to licentiousness, decadence, and disorder. When Joseph de Maistre, the reactionary critic of the French Revolution, said that "man is too wicked to be free," he was speaking candidly on behalf of the whole biblical tradition. A liberal society, a society that regards freedom as its supreme value, is therefore antithetical to the biblical understanding of humanity as radically flawed.

There is no doubt some truth in this biblical understanding of the human condition. In a society that places freedom above virtue in its hierarchy of ends, there will always be some individuals who will abuse their freedom. But if a society is to be free, it must have some tolerance for private vice-vice that does not involve harming others. Religious fundamentalists -- Jewish, Christian, and Islamic -- have zero tolerance for private vice. They prefer a society in which virtue, not freedom, is the supreme value.

Virtue is no doubt a wonderful thing. But it cannot be the supreme goal of social and political organization. The reason is that there is more than one conception of virtue and more than one way to live a righteous life. Politics is about how different people with different conceptions of virtue and different beliefs about ultimate truth can live together peacefully. But biblical religions are singular and autocratic when it comes to virtue, and this is the second reason that they present an obstacle to freedom.

The Christian tradition is a particularly good illustration of intolerance. In the Christian tradition, sin is defined as unbelief. Jesus set the stage. He identified righteousness with believing in him and considered wickedness to be the reverse: "for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins" (John 8:24). The assumption is that there is only one way to be righteous and only one route to salvation: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Not surprisingly, Christians followed Jesus in defining wickedness as not believing what Christians believed.

Aquinas was true to Jesus when he said that "unbelief is the greatest of sins." This assumption has been the source of untold wickedness in the history of the Church. It explains the profound intolerance that has led Christians to persecute others, not for doing harm, but simply for being unbelievers or for harboring what Christian authorities thought were false beliefs. The Inquisition and the burning of witches, heretics, and Jews are some examples of what happened when the Church had political power. It is not a question of bad people perverting a good religion. Far from being an aberration that is not representative of Christianity, the persecution of heretics follows logically from the connection of faith and salvation as presented by Jesus in the Gospels.

When virtue becomes the supreme value in a society, the result is the criminalization of "sin" as defined by the sacred texts-and as these texts are interpreted by the powerful. You end up with a society that resembles the reign of the English Puritans in seventeenth-century England-they abolished Christmas because it was too much fun and there was too much pleasure and indulgence associated with it. Or you end up with a society that resembles the reign of the Taliban in Afghanistan of recent memory: no music; no dancing; no kite flying; no films; no female voices singing on the radio; no female voices broadcasting the news; and no female arms, ankles, or faces seen in public. All these harmless freedoms and pleasures are supposedly too obscene-unlike public executions, stoning, burning witches, or tormenting Jews.
The third reason that biblical religions are an obstacle to free societies is their attachment to the concept of collective guilt. The biblical God tends to punish the whole community for the sins of the few. In fact, the biblical God brags about his penchant for that kind of justice: ". . . I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me . . ." (Exodus 20:5). Time and again, the anger falls on the whole community for the transgressions of some. Some of the Hebrew prophets, such as Jeremiah, rightly objected to this divine justice and looked forward to a new covenant in which "everyone shall die for his own iniquity" (Jeremiah 31:30). Ezekiel echoed the same principle (Ezekiel 18:20), but to no avail. When Jesus came, things got even worse. Jesus took it for granted that all men and women are justly condemned for the sins of their ancestors-Adam and Eve. Jesus supposedly came to bear the punishment that we justly deserve for original or inherited sin.

The story of Samson's attack on the temple of the Philistines is another example of the collective nature of biblical justice (Judges 16:26-31). Samson's terrorist act on the Philistines is presented by the biblical authors as an act of God, who wished to punish the Philistines for their iniquity. The biblical God punished the Philistines as a people. He was indifferent to the innocence of individuals. Supposedly, there are no innocent Philistines.

After the attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, some Muslim clerics denounced the terrorists as people who are using religion for their own political purposes. But saying that the terrorist attacks had nothing to do with Islam is like saying that the Inquisition and the Crusades had nothing to do with Christianity. It is certainly true that the Qur'an bids every believer to embark on a jihad against evil in his heart. But it also bids believers to fight against the evil of the infidels. More honest Islamic clerics and commentators declared that Muhammad Atta and the other terrorists were instruments of God punishing the Americans for their iniquity and that there are no innocent Americans. Christian fundamentalists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson agreed that the terrorist attack was a deserved punishment from God for America's sins. They singled out the sins of feminists, gays, and lesbians as the reason that God decided to punish America. This is a candid expression of the classic biblical view of collective guilt. The Bible is tribal in its perspective; its authors think in terms of peoples and not individuals.

There is no doubt that the biblical concept of collective guilt encourages extremism in dealing with the "enemy." It certainly makes it easier to target unarmed and unsuspecting civilians. No declarations of war are necessary; no rules of war need to be observed; no distinctions need to be made between soldiers and civilians. But what interests me is the obstacle that the concept of collective guilt poses to domestic freedom.

If you believe that God will punish you collectively for the private vices of some of the members of the community-by using hurricanes, floods, famines, earthquakes, or terrorists-you will naturally take a lively interest in the private affairs of others. The notion of collective guilt promotes a meddlesome style of politics that is an obstacle to a free society. Freedom requires a private domain of conduct that is of no concern to others-a domain that does not threaten the interests of others or their equal freedom. But fundamentalists-Jewish, Christian, and Islamic alike-deny the existence of this domain of freedom, and that explains their aversion to secular liberal society. If they had their druthers, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell would create a ministry for the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice akin to that of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In my view, the hard-won freedom of the West is precarious-it has biblical enemies inside and outside. If the majority of Americans begin to agree with their Islamic enemies that freedom is nothing more than a decadent surrender to pleasure, they will launch a jihad against freedom in the name of biblical religion. In the end, America will become more like her enemies-a society where a particular conception of virtue has primacy over liberty. This will not necessarily happen quickly in an apocalyptic manner; but quietly, gradually, and subtly, liberty will be eroded.

Shadia Drury is Canada Research Chair in Social Justice and Professor of Philosophy and Political Science at the University of Regina in Canada. Her most recent book is Terror and Civilization: Christianity, Politics, and the Western Psyche (New York: Palgrave Macmillan at St. Martin's Press, 2004).

This article contains copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of democracy, economic, environmental, human rights, political, scientific, and social justice issues, among others. I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this article is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes.

Posted by Norm at 7:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (37)

Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet:
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.
—Joe Hill, International Workers of the World (IWW), 1911

Posted by Norm at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Skeptics Circle Eighth Edition

Only on Fox: "RNC headquarters evacuated" (and the White House and Capitol, too)

A Real Monkey Trial

Who would object to a fake penis especially one called the Whizzinator

Smoke Pot, Not Email

I like what Ike said about Social Security

If you're a fantasy football fan you need to check this out.

Posted by Norm at 2:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Exporting Neo-Con Morality

Brazil has become the first country to reject AIDS funding from the U.S., citing its unwillingness to play by Washington's ideological rules.

Brazil has rejected $40 million in U.S. funds for fighting AIDS because of demands that it condemn prostitution, a key participant in its flagship AIDS program. The move is seen by some observers as a rejection of Washington's head-in-the-sand linkage of neo-con morality and foreign aid.

"Biblical principles [are] their guide, not science," Pedro Chequer, director of Brazil's AIDS program told media outlets on Wednesday. "This premise is inadequate because it hurts our autonomous national policy."

Avery Ant skewers McDonalds

A short clip from the new Dr. Who episode two "The End of the World"

Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that platfor one forbids the use of weapons, teleportation and religion.

Quicktime Video '20 1.3MB

Scientology Loses Ground to New Fictionology

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Quicktime Video '15 724K
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That "chickenhawk nonsense"

Our Future

Huffington Post New on my blogroll

Pat Robertson (Windows Media) from the Rhandi Rhodes Show via Rev - Mykeru

Beatles Philosophy via Leiter Reports

The Madness is Back

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Coffee or password--which would you choose?

Security vendor VeriSign found 66 percent would choose to give up their passwords for a Starbucks coffee, during an informal on-the-street survey conducted Thursday in San Francisco.

In an era of increased security concerns over protecting personal and corporate data, it's surprising to see that a cup of java can go a long way.

In a related story Bill Maher has something to say about Starbucks customers

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Captured Al-Qaeda kingpin is case of ‘mistaken identity’

THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as “a critical victory in the war on terror”. According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.

One Longsome Argument

By any objective measure, the evolution of species ranks among the most successful scientific theories ever. So why is the message not getting through?

Charles Darwin liked to describe the origin of species as "one long argument," but his extensive treatise in support of biological evolution now seems painfully brief compared to the argument that has followed in its wake. Indeed, never in the history of science has a more prolonged and passionate debate dogged the heels of a theory so thoroughly researched and repeatedly validated. And the end is nowhere in sight. Despite all evidence to the contrary, a large portion of the world's population continues to cling to the belief that human beings are fundamentally different from all other life forms and that our origins are unique. It's a lovely sentiment to be sure, but how is it that so many people continue to be drawn to this thoroughly discredited notion?

Apostasy, Human Rights, Religion and Belief

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The light didn't come on. I falsely assumed the bulb had burnt out. I got another bulb; a replacement for the one I thought faulty. I removed the bulb and shook it, no telltale rattle. I replaced it anyway, setting the other aside. I didn't put it away, I set it aside. The new bulb didn't work either; it had never been the problem I checked the combinations of on-off switches, both the pull down chain near the bulb, and the switch on the cord. I didn't want to consider the possibility that it was unplugged. Who would have unplugged it and why? Another possibility occurred to me, the wall-switch the one that controls the wall plug. I switched it to the opposite position, and went through the series of switches again, two switches, both on, both off, one on one off, one off one on, four possibilities and only one solution. The initial problem was even more complicated. The wall switch, the bulb, the pull down chain, the cord switch, and the wall plug. I made some assumptions. I took a shortcut, and it paid off. Five switches, all of which had to be properly set. A combination of five things taken two at a time. Thirty-two possibilities, thirty-one lead to darkness one to light, but like I said I made some assumptions and it paid off. The next day, the new bulb is illuminating my reading area, I'm trying to read, but my wife is chatting. She's in the hall closet searching for paint. "I have hundreds of different colors, and never the right one" she says. I'm trying to read, and her chatter is annoying me. "Someone needs to replace the bulb in the hallway," she says. I know she expects me to respond, but I'm reading, and I'm already annoyed. I can see the bulb I removed the day before. I'm not looking at it, but I know it's there, not where it belongs, but near me on the shelf. It looks out of place. I left it there because I was too lazy to put it away. I know she will speak again. Can't she see I'm reading, am I being unreasonable. There is no way to stop her so I set the book on the table and stand up. I take a step to my left retrieving the bulb from its place, I take another step and lean over the gate, the gate that keeps the dog out of the living room. "HERE," I say, handing her the bulb. She's surprised, she shakes it. "It's good," I say, offering no further explanation, hoping to cut the conversation short. "Where did you get it," she says. She knows I didn't get it from the closet where we keep the bulbs. Exasperated I say, "I pulled it out of my ass." "You pulled it out of your ass" she says. "That's right I pulled it out of my ass." I sit back down, retrieve my book and begin to read. Meanwhile, she has removed the cut glass shade to replace the bulb. "The shade is dirty," she says, "look at this." "Can't you see I'm reading and that your talking distracts me," I say. I immediately regret my harsh tone, but say nothing that will delay me getting back to my book. I finish the chapter. I can't read anymore; there is tension in the air. I pick up my book and enter the room where she's now painting. I lean over and kiss her on the cheek. She looks up, smiles and says, "hey can't you see I'm painting."

Posted by Norm at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Criminals Belong in Prison An excellent summary of the story that should be creating headlines not just in Great Britain but in our country as well

Bad Moves: Don't You Look Pretty Today

Evolution on Trial via Orac Knows

"It's clear from the beginning that this is not a real science discussion. This is a showcase for intelligent design," said Jack Krebs, vice president of Kansas Citizens for Science, which is boycotting the four days of hearings. "They have created a straw man. They are trying to make science stand for atheism so they can fight atheism."

Members Say Church Ousts Kerry Supporters

When Religion Goes Wrong Dem bloggers has Windows Media Video for those who prefer it. I've converted it to Quicktime for the rest of us.

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Baptist Links courtesy of onegoodmove reader Josh

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Actor Tom Cruise Opens Up about his Beliefs in the Church of Scientology

Check out this interview with Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. The interviewer doesn't let Cruise get away with making false claims about Scientology. (Scroll down about 2/3 of the way down.

SPIEGEL: Do you see it as your job to recruit new followers for Scientology?

Cruise: I'm a helper. For instance, I myself have helped hundreds of people get off drugs. In Scientology, we have the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. It's called Narconon.

SPIEGEL: That's not correct. Yours is never mentioned among the recognized detox programs. Independent experts warn against it because it is rooted in pseudo science.

Cruise: You don't understand what I am saying. It's a statistically proven fact that there is only one successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. Period.

SPIEGEL: With all due respect, we doubt that. Mr. Cruise, you made studio executives, for example from Paramount, tour Scientology's "Celebrity Center" in Hollywood. Are you trying to extend Scientology's influence in Hollywood?

Thanks David

On a related note, Tom, just cruising.

Quicktime Video '27 452K

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Bill Maher was a guest on Craig Ferguson's show the other night, and answered Craig's question; what's driving you crazy. The answer, our country is becoming a theocracy, the tabloid culture, and our perspective about crime. He used the Michael Jackson case to make his point.

"The whole country is becoming a theocracy... People have no perspective about crime ... I was savagely beaten once by bullies in the school yard... If I had a choice of being savagely beaten or gently masturbated by a pop star—It's just me"

So what do you think? Would you rather be savagely beaten or gently masturbated? What about penalties? Should they be comparable? Are they?

Quicktime Video 2'20 4.6MB

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Posted by Norm at 12:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (49)

This Dino Eats His Vegetables

A mass graveyard of dinosaurs unearthed in Utah could prove to be the missing link between carnivores and herbivores, say the paleontologists who made the discovery.

The graveyard contains the fossils of a previously unknown type of dinosaur that descended from the same ancestors as the meat-eating Velociraptor. But the new species, dubbed Falcarius utahensis, has a number of skeletal differences that make the dinosaur likely to have been in transition to vegetarianism.

The findings allow paleontologists to see a snapshot of evolution in action, say the researchers.

666

Altruistic Punishment May Explain Political Behavior

A new UC Davis study about the origin of cooperation may shed light on why nations punish other countries for human rights violations or why people sanction those who do not vote.

Political scientist James Fowler has created a mathematical model of human behavior that suggests that "moralists" who voluntarily pay a cost to punish "misbehavers" can come to dominate a population and ensure cooperation among its members.

Apocalypse Soon

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Tempest In Texas

Proof Bush Fixed The Facts

Politicization is far too mild a word. The intelligence on Iraq was not mistaken, it was manufactured. This was mass deception.

From the this is so cool department:
The Colbert Report

Comedy Central said yesterday that it was giving Mr. Colbert his own show: a half-hour that is expected to follow "The Daily Show" on weeknights and will lampoon those cable-news shows that are dominated by the personality and sensibility of a single host. Think, he said, of Bill O'Reilly and Chris Matthews and Sean Hannity.

On Ann Coulter and the Police State

Copy of Complaint on Coulter Story

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Quicktime Video '59 1.7MB

Quicktime Video '59 908K This version will only play on a Mac with Quicktime 7. The filesize is half that of the other version, but I think the quality is comprable. If anyone has Quicktime 7 I'd appreciate your opinion.

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Kent State, May 4, 1970: America Kills Its Children 35 Years Ago Today

IN MEMORY

Allison Krause

Jeffrey Miller

Sandra Scheuer

William Schroeder
13 Seconds I'll Never Forget

Army Recruiters Say They Feel Pressure to Bend Rules

It was late September when the 21-year-old man, fresh from a three-week commitment in a psychiatric ward, showed up at an Army recruiting station in southern Ohio. The two recruiters there wasted no time signing him up, and even after the man's parents told them he had bipolar disorder - a diagnosis that would disqualify him - he was all set to be shipped to boot camp, and perhaps Iraq after that, before senior officers found out and canceled the enlistment.

Despite an Army investigation, the recruiters were not punished and were still working in the area late last month.

Related Story

An interview with actor and solar advocate Edward Norton one of the good guys.

Shipping Out U.S. Jobs -- to a Ship

The public reaction was predictable when word first got out of SeaCode Inc.'s proposal to house 600 foreign software engineers on a cruise ship moored three miles off the California coast, thus undercutting U.S. wage rates and circumventing local labor rules.

The veteran technology columnist John Dvorak described the vessel as a "slave ship." Other critics preferred the label "sweatshop." The words "exploitative" and "inhumane" caromed around the Web.

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This is an excellent article and one I recommend highly. You're time spent reading it will be richly rewarded.

Postmodernism and truth by Daniel Dennett he concludes with this paragraph.

The methods of science aren't foolproof, but they are indefinitely perfectible. Just as important: there is a tradition of criticism that enforces improvement whenever and wherever flaws are discovered. The methods of science, like everything else under the sun, are themselves objects of scientific scrutiny, as method becomes methodology, the analysis of methods. Methodology in turn falls under the gaze of epistemology, the investigation of investigation itself--nothing is off limits to scientific questioning. The irony is that these fruits of scientific reflection, showing us the ineliminable smudges of imperfection, are sometimes used by those who are suspicious of science as their grounds for denying it a privileged status in the truth-seeking department--as if the institutions and practices they see competing with it were no worse off in these regards. But where are the examples of religious orthodoxy being simply abandoned in the face of irresistible evidence? Again and again in science, yesterday's heresies have become today's new orthodoxies. No religion exhibits that pattern in its history.

From the mailbag Carly writes Proud To Be Liberal It's the best definition of the differences of liberalism and conservatism I've ever read.

If Jesus returns, Karl Rove will kill him Thanks to Rick for the link.

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Rant On a lovely rant by the Chief Blogging Officer aka Rageboy. He's off on a rant with a little bit of fun for everyone. Check it out.

Practice What You Preach thanks chris
Revealed: documents show Blair's secret plans for war

A damning minute leaked to a Sunday newspaper reveals that in July 2002, a few weeks after meeting George Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Mr Blair summoned his closest aides for what amounted to a council of war. The minute reveals the head of British intelligence reported that President Bush had firmly made up his mind to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein, adding that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy".

On My Way to Work by Paul Ford

Abu Ghraib woman soldier brokers plea deal Will Donald and George get plea deals, not if I'm consulted.

Avery Ant's latest on the Male Ego (flash)

pinkslips

Deadwood phrases

Welcome, fair cocksuckers, to the latest fucking dispatch, hot off the presses, typed by the humble hand and surveyed by the sullen jaw of one who eyeballs far more of the televised entertainments than can be good or natural for any man, even the sorts of dimwits and hoopleheads and crusty old relics who favor such sorrowfully empty pastimes over fresh air or a good fuck. Salon (subscription or free day pass required)

The Party Party features "Lets get Fucked Up" with George and Arnold

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Quicktime Video 4'05 3.9MB

Quicktime Required (free download)

Real Time with Bill Maher

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Sen. George Allen (R), Meet The Press on Judicial nominations. When confronted with facts, George invokes the standard republican response. I have different numbers.

Quicktime Video '39 784K

Quicktime Required (free download)

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